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sarahb919's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Grief and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Sexism, and Terminal illness
Minor: Violence, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Classism
akvolcano's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Ableism, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, and War
hanz's review against another edition
3.0
The history parts were my favourite and there were a lot of interesting facts about the people involved in the early stages of the library.
Occasionally hard to follow because it jumped around a lot and I found that some of the chapters ended quite abruptly and didn't really have a conclusion to add to the overall point of the book, however I'm relatively new to non fiction so could just be me.
The author also repeated used either he or she to refer to an arbitrary person, which was a little jarring and felt out of place with some of the themes of the book.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Sexism, Terminal illness, and Antisemitism
Minor: Homophobia and Racism
beyourbestshelf's review against another edition
3.75
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Miscarriage, Sexism, and Pregnancy
jazhandz's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Classism
To elaborate on classism: I found the way the writer describes homeless library patrons to be intensely uncomfortable to read, and it came up repeatedly.lunep's review
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Violence, and Police brutality
caseythereader's review against another edition
4.75
- This book is a love letter to libraries and a message of gratitude to librarians. The descriptions of people and places read like fiction, and I just couldn't put it down.
- I really appreciated the repeated emphasis on how libraries are expected to fill every social need and gap in our safety nets, in particular in regards to supporting unhoused people but also in dozens of other ways. It shows us how far beyond their limits (financial, educational, etc.) we have forced them to stretch.
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Terminal illness, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Classism
linesiunderline's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism
librarianmage's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexism